User Reviews

I probably should have watched the original first but this became available to me so what was a guy meant to do?

This supernatural tale tells the story of a family within their castle, a ghost, armed thugs up to no good and lots and lots of secrets.

I'll say one thing for Dementia 13, it's unpredictable. At no point did I correctly identify what was going to happen or the direction of the movie and that was refreshing.

The trouble is it's a bit of a mess, I can see what they were going for but it simply doesn't work. The plot is jumbled, the execution is all over the place and I'm left feeling that an additional 30 minutes could have saved the film.

Again I haven't seen the original (Yet) so this could be an utter hatchet job but in it's current form this is an underwhelming effort.

The Good:

Looks great

Unpredictable

The Bad:

Messy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

It's 2017 and people still haven't grasped the concept of finishing the bad guy off

Saw 'Dementia 13', being fond of horror/thriller regardless of budget (even if not my favourite genre) and being intrigued somewhat by the idea. Being behind on my film watching and reviewing, with a long to watch and review list that keeps getting longer, it took me a while to get round to watching and reviewing it.

Giving 'Dementia 13' a fair chance with being interest and apprehension, it turned out to be far better than expected. Won't say that 'Dementia 13' is a great film because it isn't and the potential, while not wasted, is not fully lived up to. Considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre and less and wasting potential, was expecting worse and was relieved that while wanting in a fair few areas it was actually one of my better recent low-budget viewings.

'Dementia 13' started off quite well, the first twenty minutes or so starting the film off on a promising, unsettling and atmospheric note that really does intrigue.

Production values did have some eeriness and nowhere near as cheap as expected, and the music, which not the most memorable in the world, didn't detract from the atmosphere.

The setting is effectively spooky. There are spooky and suspenseful moments and it isn't dull. The direction doesn't feel phoned in and the storytelling in some of the first half does intrigue.

However, the story was severely wanting in the second half after starting off promisingly. It is very disjointed and after the promising start the final third especially loses atmosphere, one loses interest and things start to not make sense and gets increasingly jumbled. Too much of the film is vague and doesn't explore some elements and story strands enough, some dropped soon after being introduced, go nowhere or serve much point.

Ending is unsatisfying, on top of feeling hasty there are too many loose ends hanging in the air. Got the sense that the writers didn't know how to end the film. Would have liked much more tension and suspense, scares could have been more consistent and some weren't surprising enough.

Found too the script to lack natural flow and with a bit of cheese going on, and the characters bland with some adopting some annoying and not always logical decision making. The support acting especially (the leads had their moments) is even more problematic than the second half's storytelling, at best it was poor and too often terrible.

I can't compare this remake of Francis Ford Coppola's 1963 horror film because I haven't seen the original. In this movie, a family gathers at the isolated Castle Haloran to attend a ceremony commemorating the death of 6-year-old Kathleen, the youngest family member from a drowning many years before. It isn't long before the murders, mayhem, and madness will begin and I was intrigued enough to wonder what the heck was going on here and why.

Although the dialogue and acting can be of B-movie quality and the film can certainly be weird and bizarre at times, there was enough here to keep up my interest throughout and I certainly have seen worse.

It's sometimes hard to believe that Francis Ford Coppola's first film was a black and white horror movie entitled "Dementia 13." Shot in the early 1960s, there were some actual chills and thrills, as an ax murderer roamed the castle grounds of a family.

What's even harder to believe is how (all these years later), a 2017 release of the same movie cannot offer half of what the original does. This time, the Haloran family owns a castle in England where all the family is to meet to celebrate Catherine. Trouble is, Catherine has been dead for quite some time. Had those involved with this film stuck with this simple premise, the movie might have had a chance. However, they could not leave well enough alone. From hit men to ghosts of Japanese workers who built the castle--it's all in there. It isn't scary (if you cannot figure out in the first 15 minutes who is doing the killing, you never need to watch another horror movie).

A family gets together to have a service honoring Kathleen who drowned when she was six. The siblings are all grown. Mom (Julia Campanelli) speaks to Kathleen and wants to turn the castle into an orphanage to the dismay of all her children. Things happen early and often as we have a masked ax murderer, the ghost of Kathleen, and a home break-in. Normally all these different elements would make for a confusing film, but this one blended nicely. I thought the ending could have been worked better. Good suspense and simple ghost effects.

Gathered together at their family house, a group of individuals intending to celebrate a family tragedy learn that not only as their world been thrown for a loop by a sudden revelation but a ravenous killer as well as a pair of thieves arrive which complicates their survival.

For the most part, this here wasn't all that bad of a remake. A lot of the fun here comes from the rather intriguing storyline here featuring the different backstage deceits and traditions of the family. Right at the beginning, we get the idea of their personal tragedies starting with the need to celebrate the accident yet also in the different setups for showcasing her as starting to become concerned about her intentions regarding their future which manages to readily upset the group.that doesn't take into account their own personal agendas which range from the backstabbing to the faithful that really gives this the kind of setup which gives the later horror scenes a nice charge. Those are surprisingly enjoyable, from the opening boat brawl to the later chase through the woods and the farmhouse ambush which signals the start of the home invasion where the robbers and the killer arrive to bring about more fun. Detailing the haunted house as well as their battles against the two different outside forces inside and outside the house, this has some enjoyable elements at play here to give this enough to lift it up over it's few minor flaws. The biggest issue here is the fact that the films' multiple storylines seem completely at odds with everything else around it, giving this the feeling of being incredibly scattered and chaotic for so short a running time. This works incredibly well with the backstabbing family members and the masked killer, yet when the film introduces ghostly hauntings, revenge, a character coming back from the dead for no reason and a group of kidnappers together with these elements it makes for a truly wild blend of activity that renders much of what happens too rushed to really care. That also reduces the fear and impact of the killer who has some fun scenes but doesn't have the full-scale sense of dread he could've had this one allowed for a more robust amount of time to get going as being reduced in screen-time definitely hurts him. As well, the darkness present in much of the finale affects this significantly as it's sometimes impossible to make out what's happening as there's just not much a chance of seeing anything. Along with the lame twist and the killers' motivation, these here bring it down.